4.  The applicant was born in 1968 and lived in Balezino in the Republic of Udmurtiya prior to his arrest.
5.  On 29 December 2005 the applicant was arrested on drug-related charges and taken to the local anti-narcotics unit. According to the applicant, he was beaten by policemen and then questioned in the absence of a lawyer.
6.  On 8 November 2006 the Balezinskiy District Court of the Republic of Udmurtiya found the applicant guilty and sentenced him to two years and ten months’ imprisonment. It appears that the applicant did not appeal against the judgment.
7.  During several periods between 29 December 2005 and 9 November 2006 the applicant was held in IVS Balezino, a temporary detention facility located in the Udmurtiya Republic.
8.  The applicant submitted that the facility had been overcrowded. There were no windows in the cells where he stayed. The ventilation and water taps did not function. No mattresses or bed linen was available. Moreover, the detainees were not taken outdoor for exercise.
9.  The applicant lodged a number of complaints seeking to bring the above issues to the attention of domestic authorities. In his reply of 5 October 2006 the district prosecutor acknowledged that the conditions of detention in the IVS had fallen short of the legal requirements. He further informed the applicant that he had brought an action against the management of the IVS for their failure to improve the conditions.
10.  On 1 September 2006 the Balezinskiy District Court of the Republic of Udmurtiya granted the district prosecutor’s lawsuit. It found that the conditions of detention in the IVS Balezino had been characterised, inter alia, by a lack of bed linen and a possibility to take a shower and that the detainees had not been afforded daily outdoor exercise.
11.  On 19 October 2006 the regional Ministry of Interior sent a letter to the applicant, acknowledging, in particular, that the detainees kept in the IVS had been deprived of outdor exercise and and lacked bed linen.
12.  After some time the applicant brought a civil claim for compensation in connection with inadequate conditions of detention. By final judgment of 6 February 2008, the Supreme Court of Udmurtiya found that the applicant’s allegations had been substantiated and granted the claim, awarding him 3,000 Russian roubles.
13.  On 27 February 2007 the applicant lodged his first letter with the Court. It contained, in particular, a detailed description of the conditions of his detention in the IVS Balezino.
14.  
“You must send the duly completed application form and any necessary supplementary documents to the Court as soon as possible and at the latest within six months of the date of the present letter. No extension of this period is possible. If the application form and all the relevant documents are not sent within the above period, the file opened will be destroyed without further warning.”
15.  According to a postmark on an envelope, on 30 October 2007 the applicant sent his completed application form which reached the Registry on 12 November 2007.
16.  Rule 47 of the Rules of Court in force from 1 July 2006 until 1 January 2009 provided in its relevant part that:
“5. The date of introduction of the application shall as a general rule be considered to be the date of the first communication from the applicant setting out, even summarily, the object of the application. The Court may for good cause nevertheless decide that a different date shall be considered to be the date of introduction.”
17.  Practice Direction on Institution of Proceedings issued by the President of the Court on 1 November 2003 to supplement Rules 45 and 47 of the Rules of Court read, in the relevant part, as follows:
“4. If an application has not been submitted on the official form or an introductory letter does not contain all the information referred to in Rule 47, the Registry may ask the applicant to fill in the form. It should as a rule be returned within 6 weeks from the date of the Registry’s letter.”
18.  On 11 December 2007 and 22 September and 1 December 2008 the Rules of Court were amended, with effect from 1 January 2009. Rule 47 was rephrased as follows:
“5. The date of introduction of the application for the purposes of Article 35 § 1 of the Convention shall as a general rule be considered to be the date of the first communication from the applicant setting out, even summarily, the subject matter of the application, provided that a duly completed application form has been submitted within the time limits laid down by the Court. The Court may for good cause nevertheless decide that a different date shall be considered to be the date of introduction.”
19.  On 22 September 2008 the text of the Practice Direction was amended as well, providing that:
“4. If an application has not been submitted on the official form or an introductory letter does not contain all the information referred to in Rule 47, the applicant may be required to submit a duly completed form. It must be despatched within eight weeks from the date of the Registry’s letter requesting the applicant to complete and return the form.
Failure to comply with this time-limit will have implications for the date of introduction of the application and may therefore affect the applicant’s compliance with the six-month rule contained in Article 35 § 1 of the Convention.”